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Is it possible to add a socket to some G3/G4 macs?

Angelgreat

Well-known member
So I saw a video by dosdude1 where he takes a Mac mini and replaced the soldered cpu with a socket so he could upgrade it. That may me think of something, would it be possible to do that on a PowerPC Mac?

It would make some cpu upgrade easier on machines who's cpus are soldered like the iMac G3, iMac G4, eMac, PowerBooks, iBooks, and Mac Mini G4. It would be cool to add a socket to the iMac G3 and be able to swap cpus, don't you think? Is it possible to do this?
 

Nixontheknight

Well-known member
I don’t think it’s possible because the processor is BGA, or ball grid array which means it’s soldered on. No socket exists for BGA chips to my knowledge
 

max1zzz

Well-known member
The G3/G4 chips tend to be in ceramic packages which makes them really "easy" to solder (I have soldered them with a paint stripper heat gun before!) without damaging them, this kind of negates the need for a socket (even if they do exist) as if you have the kit to remove the old CPU you should be OK soldering a replacement
 
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